New Search and Old Boundaries
April 28, 2010
Yesterday in my talk at a conference I pointed out that for many people, the Facebook environment will cultivate new species of information retrieval. Understandably the audience listened politely and converted my observations into traditional information retrieval methods. Several of the people with whom I spoke pointed out that the Facebook information was findable only with a programmatic query via the Facebook application programming interfaces or by taking a Facebook feed and processing it. The idea that “search” now spans silos, includes structured and unstructured data, and delivers actionable results describes what some organizations want. There are challenges, of course. These include:
- Mandated silos of information; for example, in certain situations, mash ups and desiloization are prohibited for legal or practical reasons
- The costs of shifting from inefficient, expensive methods to more informed methods; for example, the costs of data transformation can be onerous. I have talked with individuals who point out that data transformation can consume significant sums of money and these expenditures are often inadequately budgeted. One result is a slow down or cut back on the behind-the-scenes preparatory work
- Business processes have sometimes emerged based on convention, user behavior or because the system was refined over time. When “data” are meshed with such a business process, the marriage is a less-than-happy one. Data centric thinking can be blunted when juxtaposed to certain traditional business processes and methods.
In short, the new world can be envisioned, based on speculation, or assembled from fragmentary reports from the field. I can imagine the intrepid 16th century navigators understanding why innovators have to push forward into a new and unknown world. One reminder is the assertion that an estimated 358 million personal data records have been leaked since 2005.
The Guardian article “Facebook Privacy Hole ‘Lets You See Where Strangers Plan to Go‘” provides an example of one challenge. The point of the write up is that the Facebook social network has a “privacy hole”. The Guardian says:
Some people report that they are able to see the public “events” that Facebook users have said they will attend – even if they person is not a “friend” on the social network…The implications of being able to find out the movements of any of the 400m people on Facebook are potentially wide-ranging – although the flaw does not seem to apply to every user, or every event. Yee says that the simplest way to prevent your name appearing in such lists is to put “not attending” against any event you are invited to.
As the Facebook approach to finding information captures users, the barriers between new types of information and the uses to which those information objects can be put come down. In a social space, the issue is personal privacy. In an organizational space, the issue is the security of information assets.
As young people enter the workforce, these folks bring a comfort level with Facebook type of systems markedly different from mine. I think organizations are largely unable to control effectively what some employees do with online services. Telework, mobile devices, and smart phones present a management and information challenge.
The lowering of information barriers and the efforts to dissolve silos further reduces an organization’s control of information and the knowledge of the uses to which that information may be put.
Let’s step back.
First, ineffective search and content processing systems exist, so organizations need ways to address the costs and inefficiencies of incumbent systems. Web services and fresh approaches to indexing content seem to be solutions to findability problems in some situations.
Second, employees—particularly those comfortable with pervasive connectivity and social methods of obtaining information—do what works for them. These methods are not necessarily controllable or known to some employers. An employee can use a personal smart phone to ask “friends” a question. After all, what are friends for?
Third, vendors want to describe their systems using words and phrases that connote ways to solve findability problems. Talking about merged data and collaboration may be what’s needed to close a deal.
When these three ingredients are mixed, the result is a security and information control challenge that is only partially understood.
Is it possible to deliver a next generation information experience and minimize the risks from such a system? Sure, but there will be surprises along the route. Whether it is Mr. Zuckerberg’s schedule or insights into the Web browsing habits of government employees, there will be unexpected and important insights about these systems. The ability to use a search interface to obtain reports is increasing. Are the privacy and security controls lagging behind?
Stephen E Arnold, April 28, 2010
Unsponsored post.
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